Watch me interrogate a teenage perv in cyberpunk detect 'em up Gamedec
I swear, officer, we only had a few bubblegum flavoured vodkas
For the week that’s in it, and this week has huge gaming digi-vent PAX-X-EGX in it, Gamedec has a free demo for you to try. Which I have, in several times. Gamedec is, y’see, a) a detective game that is b) a text heavy RPG without combat and c) offers multiple routes to solutions. As a Venn diagram of my interests, it’s almost a perfect circle (although it does have a futuristic Blade Runner-y cyberpunk setting. I can’t have everything).
In Gamedec’s world, people spend most of their time inside very advanced video games called virtualiums, in expensive chairs and suits that give you all over haptic feedback and suck all your wee out so you can stay in for days. The ideal! Except obviously, other aspects of life have moved online as well, including crime. That’s where you, a gamedec, come in. You’re a game detective. You solve cybercrime. And in this case cybercrime. Eyebrows eyebrows.
You start as Trenchcoat Genericman, who’s just called Gamedec in this demo, but you continually shape what he’s like by your choices and responses. Do you like the view out of your window? Are you jaded about how much time people spend in the virtual world? That kind of thing. But also: how are you going to solve this case?
You can choose from several builds that affect what clues you’re able to pick up, and how. I played through a couple of times to test this and it really did make a difference. The Infotainer, for example, is basically an influencer. You know loads about brands and are more charming. But you could also be a Scalpel, who’s got more medical knowledge. My favourite was as a Glazier, a cool hacker type who was better at working with machines and computers. Which, you know, seemed a sensible life skill for a gamedec.
In the demo, you’re contacted by Geoffrey Haggis (lol) because his son Freddo (Freddo Haggis, lol) has been stuck in a game for four days. He went in with his friend Timmy. Timmy came out. Freddo did not. I recorded one version of the interrogation I conducted with Timmy, who revealed that to celebrate Freddo’s birthday they went into, shhhh, a naughty game for over 16s! The pervy little scamps. Personally, I can’t imagine thinking “You know what I want to do for my birthday? Do some interactive VR porn with my best mate!” but I guess the cyberpunk future is a different country.
Timmy has an emotional state, and you can choose to be either good cop or bad cop. Being friendly will unlock different secrets to being cold and pushing him to be scared instead of relaxed. It’s a cool system, and one that actually requires you to pay attention. You can also see the different options you might have had if you’d chosen a different character build.
My approach in the video above is just one option. You’ll also have different things to ask about if you investigate the office a bit first. And, if you don’t get enough info out of Timmy, there’s a woman that they brought into the game with them who’s stuck as well. You might be able to bring her back to reality, or ask her questions in virtual reality.
I really recommend you have a mosey on over to Steam and have a go of the free demo yourself. I’m really intrigued by Gamedec, so I’m excited to play more and, possibly, interview even more nervous teenagers while their mate is in the next room, strapped to a gaming chair and sporting a four day old priapism.
Backer's Build Survey Feedback Report; Vote for Gamedec on Digital Dragons Indie Showcase!
Hello there!
It’s time for the Backer’s Build Survey report!
Our survey results are now available. It took us a while, but we're finally coming back to you with the Beta-test survey results. With the publication of Backer's Build, we gave you the option to express your opinion on the very first publicly available, playable version of Gamedec. We've given you the opportunity to describe your favorite gameplay elements, rate your experience, and summarize things that you think should be improved. This is the feedback that will allow us to deliver a game that will translate into a valuable experience for you. In the file, you will also find additional information from the analytics that we obtained using various tools to find out how diverse were, i.a. Your decisions, the choice of profession, or the length of the game itself.
One of many pages from the Backer's Build Survey report
Let’s summarize the publication in numbers. From the data we’ve gathered between 3rd – 16th August, over 1500 players played the Backers Build. The average session time was around 1 hour long, and the total retention score reached 14%. It’s great to see that some of you decided to check the other path during the playthrough, by choosing other aspects or making different decisions.
From all the gathered data, the open type of questions has the highest value for us. We really appreciate your time to enlist all the pros and cons during your experience with the Gamedec. The answers were totally anonymous, but we selected some of the answers to better understand the whole picture and the motivation, why the specific keywords were bolded.
Download Gamedec Public Beta Feedback (.pdf) now!
NOTE: If you haven't played the Backers Build or didn't know about it – Read more about it (Instructions included) HERE! we strongly encourage you to post any feedback, notifications, bug reports, performance issues, and general inquiries on our Steam forum:
Steam Forum Link
This restricted access thread is the best place to post the feedback in a well-organized manner and lets us quickly answer your questions in public.
Then we have a Discord channel, where you can join to chat in real-time with other players and us as well:
[https://discord.gg/aspgwVj]
DIGITAL DRAGONS INDIE SHOWCASE
The Digital Dragons event went online this year, and many studios from around the world are participating in special Indie Showcase on Steam and GOG!
Indie Showcase starts Today. The event lasts until Friday, at 19.00 CEST.
Over 150 indie games from all over the world have entered the competition. There are many games included in the showcase, and all of us have a chance to win the Community Vote prize!
COMMUNITY VOTE
For three days of the event, a Community Vote is held. Viewers and Steam users can vote for their favorite game from the final 50.
Show your support and vote for Gamedec! Thank you!
Watch our Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel for more. If you'd like to talk with our team or ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek) and chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
As always, a big Thank You,
from #TeamGamedec
Tokyo Game Show is live!
Download our free demo!
Tokyo Game Show needs no introduction! This year, it's an online experience where we have our dedicated website and our free demo is free to download, again!
Take a look at our online booth!
Be sure to download the demo if you didn't have the chance to do it earlier. Don't forget to share your feedback on our Discord server
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Have fun!
#TeamGamedec
Dev Diary Art Design: From a concept to a character
Hi there!
Have you ever wondered what the character concept creation process looks like? We will surprise you, sometimes with Gamedec the impulse was enough to find the perfect reference. It is a very complicated process, where even the color and shape of the brooch are crucial to reflect the personality of character. We took our time and asked our Artist - Magdalena Krasiejko, to tell us more about the whole process behind character creation, from the concept up to the final model.
Creating characters for Gamedec is definity a challenging task. After all, a good story is usually based on well written characters, and in a game strongly focused on its plot it is crucial. Of course, a character with a certain personality needs certain looks which can tell their type of personality at first glance. This is when work of concept artists begins.
The process of creating a character concept art starts when their description is provided by our design team. Usually they have a clear image in their heads, and try their best to lay in on paper - and our job as artists is to deliver a visual representation of what they had on their minds. Of course, it's easier said than done, and there are some very important things which you should always keep in mind while creating characters for Gamedec. Usually the description focuses on the characters look, but also includes the information about their story, personality and life purpose. Even small details about a character's past helps a lot, since artists can use it to make the character more authentic by adding personal details, such as scars or tattoos.
After receiving a description and making sure they understand everything properly, artists can start their work on the concept art. Let me tell you about how it looks like while working on Gamedec. First of all, it’s crucial to express a character's personality. While working on concept art on which a 3D model would be created, we focus on their appearance, such as their clothes, hairstyles and other visual elements. But those elements can, and should, complete the character's personality. Later on, while making a 2D avatar for them, we can draw them in specific poses and with certain expressions, which will make the look whole and give the player a full picture of the character, which completes the way they act and speak. Both their appearance and things such as expression and pose should come together, so the player can suspect what kind of person they’re approaching, even if they didn’t yet say a word.
Designer description always includes a lot of references and texts about how the character dresses up. But even though they try their best, most of the time there are simply no accurate references of clothes they have in mind - since the game takes place in the very specific world in the future. Our job is to make the designer's vision come true.
So, let's pretend we need to create a concept art of a specific character, which lives in the world of Gamedec. What would they look like? You can create a Thor-like suit for your character and call it futuristic clothes, and of course, it will pretty much look legit. But think about how clothes evolved in past centuries. We use different materials, patterns and shapes, but still, there are plenty of styles you can dress up today. Fashion exists and will exist forever, and that’s the thing we try to achieve in Gamedec. Clothes of the characters need to look futuristic, but still express different styles and aspects of fashion. It helps to make the whole world authentic. In a futuristic world, even basic gardrobe elements like leather jackets can exist, but with slightly different elements, such as more geometrical patches or elements created with other materials.
You should still think about what purpose it would serve, though. It would be way too easy to just put some shining lights on a plain old jacket and call it futuristic, right? In the world of Gamedec, we are lucky - there are plenty of elements already created by the author, which can be easily integrated into clothes. For example, devices such as homeostasis sliders, which help you control body temperature. Making it an integral part of character clothes automatically makes them look more futuristic.
Speaking of which, there are several important rules of the Gamedec world, we should keep in mind while creating characters. Beside the devices, such as omnic or walktel, which are essential for any person living in Warsaw City, all the clothes are sewn in a certain way, using specific stitches, which make them always fit perfectly. Zippers or buttons are usually used as decoration, while biofasteners, which look similar to burs, keep parts of the material together. People are no longer using shoelaces, and all the things made out of paper should be made with different material - ever cigarettes or newspapers. All those rules make artists think about new, inconvenient ways to design clothes, trying to make them fit the character's personality at the same time.
One of the aspects of creating interesting characters is to think about what they would look like, if they had an option to choose it. For example, what kind of accessories they would wear, and how would they personalise their clothes. You can dress up your character in pretty basic clothes, but when you pay attention to such details, your character becomes authentic. It can be either a symbol of their favourite band on a t-shirt, a specific piercing or even a button in their shirt. Those small things really do make a difference!
All these situations and problems to solve are things concept artists need to face while creating a character for the Warsaw City, the original world of Gamedec. But let's not forget, that one of the most important aspects of the game is the opportunity to visit other virtual worlds. While working on the game I’ve had the chance to create characters for both futuristic, cyberpunk worlds, but also a noir-like world of Twisted & Perverted or straight out of western Harvest Time. You definitely can’t tell this job is boring! Jokes aside, this is a great opportunity for an artist to learn. While working on Gamedec I had to look up for many references, I tried to figure out how the fashion looked in the Wild West, how different types of weapon look like.
Creating a character for Gamedec is definitely a challenging task. There are many things you should have in mind, and many details you need to remember to make your character likeable, authentic and as real as possible. After all, in a game based on the story, characters are extremely important. But even though it’s challenging and sometimes difficult, it’s always a great opportunity to develop your skills. And besides that, seeing the character you created - your character - come to life in a game, is one of the best feelings ever.
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That's it for today, see you in the next update soon!
Watch our Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel for more. If you'd like to talk with our team or ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek) and chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
As always, a big Thank You,
from #TeamGamedec
Free Demo of Gamedec @ Steam Game Festival
Play as a game detective, who solves cases in both virtual and real worlds.
Gamedec is a non-combat, isometric, cyberpunk-themed RPG, where your decisions really matter - you are the sum of your choices.
Play as a game detective, who solves cases in both virtual and real worlds. In this demo, you're summoned by a desperate father trying to save his son trapped inside one of the adult-only Virtualia.
Our public demo will be back online for the duration of the Steam Game Festival. If you missed your opportunity or just want to replay the experience with a different approach, feel free to download the demo within the 7-13 October. The demo should be available from 9 P.M. CEST.
Gamedec release postponed to 2021
We have decided to postpone the premiere of Gamedec to 2021.
During the Kickstarter Campaign, we were fully open with our decision to make Gamedec a community-driven project - We wanted you to be an active factor in helping us create the game you would like to play. We try to keep you informed about the production status and provide you with information about our activities as often as possible.
Right now, two months after the Backer's Build release, we sat down and discussed the feedback many of you provided in the surveys or previews both by press and content creators. We realized that they were sincere, sometimes rough, but always beneficial and mind-opening, hence our decision to postpone the release date.
This made us understand that we're heading in the right direction with the game's production, and our branching system works well, but there is still room for improvement and much work to be done. We know that the decision to delay the release will help us deliver the consistency in the quality of the premise you've backed.
Click this link to see the image in higher resolution
We are iterating many different aspects of the game to be sure they meet the high standards our community anticipates. We know that the dialogues (and their translation) need to be improved– That is one of the most commented problems from the Backer's Build Survey, and we want to deliver the quality we've promised during the campaign. Most of the in-game locations are done, but we are still iterating the meta-scenario factors and polishing the narrative branching. We will provide you with more information about that in the future, with more dev-diaries, content videos about the progress, and more.
As for user-created input – we promised space to deliver community-made assets that will find their place in the game's final build (graffiti, voice recordings, naming NPCs, or companies), and it is still a work in progress. In the following weeks, we will be reaching out to gather the input/content from you to process it into the game. Expect some emails/check the Discord Backer Channels for more info on that.
When it comes to physical rewards - they will be sent out to you shortly before the game's release so that you'll have them on the launch day, and at the moment, we are working on them to have the highest possible quality to satisfy you fully. You can also expect various updates on this matter, as we will try to show you the process of their creation and tell you a bit more about what it looks like "behind the scenes".
Gamedec is still set to debut on PC. Switch and other consoles are still confirmed, but we can't promise a simultaneous release.
Thank you for being such a fantastic community and for your continued support.
#TeamGamedec
Grab a cup of coffee and dive deep into the mind of Marcin Sergiusz Przybyłek, the author of the Gamedec saga. Marcin will explain his view on creating the gamedecverse and determine the genre in which Gamedec books fit in. Enjoy!
by: Sebastian Brzuszczak
A word from the author: I’m no literary scholar. I’m a writer. After I write something, I get to know “what that was”, usually from reviews. Sometimes I hear that I wrote cyberpunk or hopepunk or even solarpunk. I read some articles on what they are, and I don’t know what to think about.
You can imagine my confusion when I wrote the first stories about gamedec in 2002 but finished the whole saga in 2015, and learned that the term “solarpunk” was forged in 2008, and hopepunk word was cataloged in 2017. So, I did not know these terms when I wrote the first three parts of the big story.
The definitions of cyberpunk, solarpunk, and hopepunk are broad and narrow at the same time. Broad, because they concern things globally: solarpunk novel, as I understand it, should stress the renewable sources of energy, the “green” direction, generally. Hopepunk is about fighting for values, about kindness towards others, about hope.
from: Gamedec video game trailer
So, if there are some atomic powerplants in a novel, it is no longer solarpunk, and if some characters in a story don’t show kindness, it is no longer hopepunk? Of course, those questions are wrong. It is more about the mood, the reception of a novel/story/game: is it more solar-ish, hope-ish, or cyberpunk-ish (where you should show the bottom of society, “hight tech – low life” and a rebellion)?
The definitions are also narrow (as I understand this word) because they suggest that you can describe society stratification, climate changes, or values things only within their genre. Of course, that is not so. Science fiction was always about that.
I am a creator, not a follower. So frankly, I never wanted to write stories and novels in any trend. In my opinion, creation should, or to put it better, can be free, not trendy.
I wanted to write about games in the future. In the first part of the “Gamedec” saga anyway. Was it cyber, solar, or hopepunk? Or did I create a new genre, “gamepunk”? Hm, and what if I don’t think it was “punk” at all, because Torkil Aymore, the main hero, was a detective, not a low-lifer, and his clients were mostly wealthy? Is it a “Gamedec” trend? I get lost. Are genres like solarpunk, hopepunk, or cyberpunk unnecessary because their traits are present in most contemporary science fiction movies, novels, and games?
solarpunk city by Steven Wong[www.artstation.com]
But people like to label things. It is easier to say:
- You know, it is a little cyberpunk, with a pinch of noir, detective stories, there is sun there, it is not only dark, and it is not like everybody is unhappy there, the author stresses values and shows meaningful solutions, so quite a bit of hopepunk.
- I see, so to keep it short: cyberpunk, noir detective mood, and hopepunk, yes?
- Sure. And a lot of games, the future ones. Like in the Matrix movie.
No doubt that conversation took less time than telling the whole background of Gamedecverse and the history of the main hero.
One of the most eminent Polish poets, Julian Tuwim, in one of his witty poems, asked a question: “How does the peppermint smell?” Then he tried to answer the question: that it smells like toothpaste (but it is the opposite, he replied to himself: it is the toothpaste that smells like peppermint!), that smells like some healing elixirs (and again, he noticed it was the other way round), and so on. Eventually, he concluded, that peppermint smells… like peppermint.
from: Gamedec video game trailer
There are two kinds of authors (of course, there are more, but for the sake of this article, let’s say there are two categories). The first are those who say: “I’ll write cyberpunk!” or “I’ll write space opera!” or “I’ll write a postapocalyptic novel!” or “I’ll write a fighting fantasy thing!” and so on. Then they keep to the trend, just filling the known channel with their story.
The second type says: “I want to tell an interesting story; it swells in my heart! I have a vision I want to share!” The trend doesn’t matter to them that much. Of course, they see their story in a given setting, but it is more a product of their imagination. I don’t want to say that the first kind of writer doesn’t have interesting stories or vision. All I mean that the primary incentive in the first group is to write something in a given trend (sometimes the one that sells best in a given time, or is most, well, “trendy”). The second kind thinks about an idea, the story, the hero, the vision first, and then constructs the world around those ideas.
I have a sensation that Frank Herbert’s Dune was like that. I am pretty sure he didn’t want to write a space opera nor any post-apocalyptic story (in a way, Dune’s world is a post-a-great-war thing) nor, eventually, a religion treaty. He wanted to write a story of destiny, sandworms, and sand. An ecological drama. Why? Most probably because he was interested in that.
book character, Torkil Aymore by Tomasz Maroński
Why George Lucas created Star Wars? I am almost sure it emerged from his most profound dreams. He did not think of creating a space opera. The space opera surrounded his ideas. Well, that was the case, in my opinion, anyway.
So why did I write “gamedec” saga? Gamedec is about a game detective in the first part, but in the next installments, that detective has to face the realium (reality). He observes and participates in the reshaping of the world as he knows it, and in the fourth and the fifth parts of the saga, the story changes to military SF and a solar utopia? Why did I do that?
I wanted to write a story of a human in a changing world - a human that has to change. Adapt. Develop. It was a kind of an RPG story: he got new skills and entered new realities in an ever-evolving world. It was my dream to write something like that.
Oh. And I loved video games.
That’s why I created the profession of a game detective. I wanted to show how complex and exciting the situation of gamers of the future can be. How deep and intricate the entanglement of realium and sensory worlds could go. Is it possible that a gamedec will accept payment for his job being a spaceship in one of the games? Will he discover who in realium is the woman his client met in a Paradise Beach game? Will he learn to control pain during Goodabads matches? Will he enter a forbidden game where it is possible to die? Like: really die? Will he help a group of young players to finish a cooperative game to win the prize? You see, the more games of the future I created, the more problems and questions I wanted to put. Is it hope, solar, or cyberpunk?
from: Gamedec video game trailer
Torkil lives really high, on the 342nd floor of a liner (a standing-hanging building) on the outskirts of giant Warsaw City. Every day he can see the sun shining off the towers of the town he loves. He drinks whiskey pondering the cases he solved, looking at sunsets. But he knows that there is no sun deeper within his city, and at the bottom of Warsaw City lie ruins of old Warsaw, where wild tribals live, where mutated bats and rats dwell, and it is very dangerous to go there. Oh, and sometimes he recalls that all the polis (cities like Warsaw City) are surrounded by ABBs (Anti Bios Barriers). The climate, fauna, and flora are so aggressive that it is impossible to go beyond the barriers and survive. Only Out-Rangers go there. Is it hope, solar, or cyberpunk?
Humanity is on the brink of immortality. You can buy a beelbie – your very young body without a brain, undergo a brain graft surgery, and in two weeks become young again. Remarkable, isn’t it? There is another planet that is terraformed – Gaya. A globe without mutations, without wild climate, a sunny new world. You can emigrate. Well, of course, if you can afford those luxuries: the new body or the ticket. So, you see, the fantastic new world and life await you if you have the money. But it is not impossible to earn it (although it is pretty hard) or get a loan from the bank. Of course, if your life decisions were reasonable and you could foresee, you would need some extra cash just in case. Is it h-, s-, or c- punk? Well, as far as I know, many science fiction approaches describe social stratification and unequal goods distribution.
In one of the stories of the first tome, Torkil starts to hallucinate. He begins to see a demon, who knows more than him, and sometimes says things that help Torkil a big deal. The creature’s name is Lee Roth, and it appears when Torkil plays The Abyss game. The problem is that the demon reappears after Torkil finishes the game session. Then another spiritual hallucination appears. Torkil meets people who can see such phenomena as well. Is it medical fiction or fantasy now? Well, all these events have a scientific explanation, but the reader has to wait for it till the end of the saga.
Torkil Aymore by Tomasz Maroński
I thought about a beauty business, cooking, transport, food making, gaming, space travels, law, corporation wars, and, believe me, hundreds of other little and more significant things and described them on thousands of pages. It is just the gamedec world. Gamedecverse. And it is just Torkil Aymore who's the main hero. At the end of the big story, he has friends, quite a lot of them, a big family too, but, at the end of the day, it is his story. And a little bit of mine, because I've spent the best period of my life to create it. What is it then? H-, s-, c- or fantasypunk?
It occurs it is not only a literary scholars problem, but also the game developers one. Designers of Anshar Studios, who decided to create a “Gamedec” game, had to face it and decide how to “position” their creation. Who to address? How to label it? The times are complex, but the thinking of clients became simpler. Designers knew people like to label things. Labels give them orientation, like stars to ancient sailors.
So how did they create the game?
It is the fruit of their effort, dreams, and imagination. Well, I work with them too, so let me say it is our effort. I hope you will like it, no matter what proportions of “punks” you prefer.
- A pinch of detective, noir mood,
- A bunch of Matrix games of the future,
- A punch of cyberpunk atmosphere at the bottom parts of Warsaw City,
- Some golden rays of hope / solarpunk at the top parts of the polis,
- And a lot, a lot of good, profound stories to tell.
text by Marcin Sergiusz Przybyłek, the author of the Gamedec saga
Which genres associated with the futuristic vision of the world do you find most interesting?
Inside Gamedecverse: Zoenets
Welcome to one of the many articles about Gamedecverse - they're not entirely related to the game, but with the lore of the books, so you can understand more while playing the actual game later in 2021. Without further ado:
The story of prolonged life
In Gamedecverse, you're not limited by the flesh. We're here today to talk about the possibilities people can choose from, to prolong their existence. If you want to live in the Net - you're welcome to do so. If you exist entirely in the Net and want to try how it is to have a physical body? We've got you covered!
But what's a Zoenet?
A Zoenet is a person living online. They might be forced or choose it voluntarily and abandon the physical shell. Although there is a way to return to the physical world from the Net, these people have chosen digital life.
Before reading what follows, it is worth remembering that a person who becomes a zoenet, especially in a netrium, has a rapidly limited range of ways to earn a living. While you're inside a Netrium, you can only make money online, and not everyone is competent to do so.
We distinguish several different types of being a "Zoenets":
1. Zoenet with the body
The body of such a zoenet lies somewhere in the clinic. Still, it is not suitable for anything other than being a metabolic brain-nourishing machine. Those who have decided on such an existence think that their body will provide the brain with oxygen and nutrients and extract metabolites better than a netrium, which runs on algorithms. A body of a zoenet is simply a factory that nourishes the brain. The kidneys, liver, and heart must be in good shape. Lungs, gastrointestinal tract, skeletal, and muscular system all this can be in a total-failure state.
Sometimes there is no choice, but a necessity to become a Zoenet. These zoenets are desperately looking for a way to keep the body alive, to survive in general. They can't afford a netrium, the money is running out, and they will soon be disconnected from the expensive equipment that combines life support and networking. When the money runs out, they will be transferred to an ordinary hospital ward, where they will be put into a pharmacological coma. Suppose the insurance does not even cover such therapy, and there are no relatives who will pay for the care. In that case, they will be disconnected and die after some time.
Beware of the graphic content. Click for a deblurred version.
The annual cost for keeping your body alive when you're a zoenet is about 100,000 credits. Most of the time, being a zoenet is meant to be temporary because sooner or later, you will decide to go entirely artificial or you can't afford it, get disconnected, fall asleep and die.
What if you don't have a body? Prepare to spend some extra credits...
2. Zoenet without a body
2.1 With organic brain (in netrium)
The brain can be removed from the body or the head (after a drastic decapitation procedure) and placed in a netrium, a gravitational box that takes care of metabolism and acts as a helmet.
The cost of such an operation is 50 000 credits. The costs associated with maintaining the brain in the netrium are broken down into two components:
2.2 Buying a netrium
In 2199, a company called Novatronics is the sole-manufacturer of netriums, and they are expensive. The regular player's luxurious helmet costs about 30 000 credits. Netriums equipped with the same tech specs, plus the technology to keep the brain alive, cost about 60 000 credits. For comparison, Tossan Lambda - a pnemobile used by middle-level managers, costs the same. So it's safe to say that buying a new home for your brain costs the same as a decent new car.
2.3 Keeping the brain alive
To keep the brain alive, the person taking care of the netrium has to replace the trays from time to time. The trays are divided into "to" and "from".
2.4 TO
Nutrients - glucose, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, fats, and everything that the brain needs. One tank, which is enough for a week, costs 300 credits. (14,400 credits per year).
Oxygen - the "drip" that the brain receives is constantly saturated with oxygen, just like an aquarium with fish. The tank adapted for oxygen saturation of the netrium drip is replaced once a month. It costs 500 credits. (6,000 credits per year).
2.5 FROM
The "FROM" tray collects brain metabolites. It does not need to be replaced. It is emptied into aseptic bags (something like a vacuum cleaner bag). Emptying takes place once a week. The price of one pack is 100 credits. (4 800 credits per year).
Netrium must go through service once a year. Service price - 2 000 credits. Netrium should also be insured. The cost of the annual insurance ranges from 2 000 to 3 000 credits.
2.6 Summary of the costs
Buying netrium is about 60 000 credits. Extracting your brain and transferring it to the netrium = 50 000 credits. If we'd like to exchange it for US dollars, it would be around the cost of a well-equipped Toyota Avensis. The yearly cost of running a netrium is 29 200 credits. It is the equivalent of a brand new Toyota Aygo you'll need to buy every year.
Who can afford to maintain the netrium? People from the upper-middle-class can get 90,000 credits for the initial transfer [netrium + the brain extraction], and then each year, they pay an additional 30,000 credits so they can stay" alive."
It should be remembered that a zoenet sitting in a netrium is entirely dependent on the person who is taking care of it. Usually, it is someone from the family. Still, if the zoenets have no one to deal with the netrium, they must pay for a guardian or buy full service from Novatronics. His or her netrium is then located at Novatronics headquarters. The annual Novatronics service costs 50 000 credits.
2.7 The competition
There is just one competition for Novatronics. A Texan organization called Zoenet Labs offers zoenets at better prices, but there is a catch. If you use their netrium, you will have to pledge an association in the organization and loyalty to Zoenet Labs.
Let's remember that zoenet using netrium can't move around the real world. It only lives in the Net.
3. With the digital brain (Rendan, in the Safe)
The cheapest Rendan (artificial brain, producer: Novatronics) costs 100 000 credits, but its maintenance is more affordable. The safe is sold together with this artificial brain, and its maintenance is simply electricity.
The Rendan safe can stand in any place where there is access to electricity. The annual service costs 1,000 credits. The procedure of transferring the psyche from the organic brain to the rendan costs 10 000 credits. Rendan's insurance (with a safe) costs about 3,000 credits per year.
4. In Mobrium
Mobrium is a human-shaped robot-like machine capable of carrying both organic and synthetic brain.
The cheapest Oscar-type mobrium costs five times as much as a netrium - 300,000 credits. Neo and Digit cost 400 000 credits, and Doom is priced at 500 000 credits. Mobrium can accommodate both an organic brain (you need a special, smaller netrium, m-netrium, costing 100,000) and a safe for your rendan
Only zoenets with a mobrium are really free - they can be both online and in the real world and move around them as they please. Mobrium service costs 3,000 credits per year. Mobrium insurance costs 3,000 - 10,000 per year.
4.1 The average cost of using the cheapest mobrium:
TOTAL – around 407 000 credits
- Mobrium – 300 000 credits
- Rendan – 100 000 credits
- Service of the Mobrium – 3 000 credits
- Service of the Rendan – 1 000 credits
- Mobrium insurance – 3 000 credits
Then annually – 7,000 credits
SUMMARY
As you can see, the 22nd century brings a whole new definition of being free. You can be free of your mortal shell or choose to be present in both real and virtual worlds as long as you can afford it, of course.
How did you like the article? Would you decide to leave your organic body and live entirely in the Net?
Be sure to add Gamedec to your Wishlist on Steam to be always up to date with our news about the Gamedecverse!
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Stay safe!
#TeamGamedec
Dev Diary: Character Creation
Today we want to tell you a bit more about the character creation process. All great stories have their background, the history behind it. People make subsequent decisions based on their experiences, past moments, or gained skills.
Gamedec is no different. As a game detective, there is only one thing that you have to include, and it is decisiveness. Your character's trait and impact on the game's course are based solely on decisions chosen by you.
What values does your character identify with? Your background and created personality will significantly impact how you develop the game's course and what branching trails you will pursue during other cases.
This is just an example, but we want to keep the freedom of choice to better shape your character. There is nothing more frustrating than making you play the character you don't like, or you can't relate to. We want to celebrate the individuality of our players and offer them as many options as possible.
We cannot wait to see all the characters that will storm Warsaw City and all the virtual worlds.
Take care!
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Stay safe!
#TeamGamedec
Gamedec has won three new awards!
Recent weeks brought us three new awards for our incredible team here at Katowice. We appreciate how the community, press, and content creators share their feedback on Gamedec and the work we've done.
DevGAMM Awards!
Gamedec won in the most prestigious category - Best Indie Game! We're always very flattered when someone sees the quality of our work and effort behind it, we're putting a lot of heart into the development, and we're happy someone is excited about the game as much as we are.
Before we began designing Gamedec, we asked ourselves the question, "What in RPG is exciting for us?" Surprisingly, it was not the combat system, rather than the decisions we are making and how everything around us changes with them. We are trying to extract the essence of an RPG – To create a game with multiple story branches, where player choices make a difference to the game world. Such an award is always nice proof that our story will find an audience that will immerse themselves as a game detective in the 22nd century.
Unreal Engine Dev Contest 2020
Unreal Engine Dev Contest is a unique experience for everyone looking for expertise, publicity, and developers' input. We're happy to announce that we've won in two categories: Kefir's Best Game and Player One Editor's Best Game.
This reward is exciting in many ways, but having the industry's support is always a pleasant experience. It shows us that the way we wanted to go with Gamedec was the right path to follow.
It was a new experience for us, but the Eastern Europe region is known for its love for isometric RPGs, and we're honored to succeed in this market. Congrats to all other winners and nominated games. You guys rock!
Digital Dragons 2020 Indie Showcase
We have received the trophy for winning the Digital Dragons 2020 Indie Showcase!
Additionally, we were provided with a glorious PC from Actina, AMD, and Krakowski Park Technologiczny.
Once again, thank you for this award, and we promise to share this PC with some greatest minds and the most talented people at Anshar Studios
We're not stopping here, and be sure we will submit Gamedec to even more contests and showcases - we plan to spread the word about our game with communities, content creators, and press all around the world!
If you'd like to help us reach more people, be sure to send a link to our Steam Page to your friends; the more gamedecs in our community, the merrier!
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Stay safe!
#TeamGamedec
About Gamedecverse #2: suspension in the air
Welcome to the second episode of our gamedecverse-related articles. This time, we’re looking closer to the aspect of defying gravity and suspending buildings, pneumobils, and other things in the air. A real 22nd-century innovation we’re looking forward to inventing someday. Take a closer look at the article by Marcin S. Przybyłek, the author of the Gamedec saga.
***
Swifts live mainly in the air. Some may remain flying non-stop for ten months. People in gamedecverse don't fly (well, most of them), but they have something in common with these birds: they rarely touch the ground.
High City
It all began during the '70s of the 21st century when nature turned against humanity. Mutated mosquitos, other insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and then mutated flora began, sort of, hate humans, so they fled from villages to little cities and then moved to the large ones.
They fenced themselves, hid behind the Anti Bios Barriers (ABBs), but it wasn't enough. Since the big cities began to overpopulate, gargantuan towers were built among the buildings. The high, enormous cities were built: the polis. The towers were built higher and higher, and people left old towns, where fauna and flora began to mutate as well – not to the extent like behind ABB's, but still, it was not safe to live there.
Aurocar supported by an anti-g unit
It is the end of the 22nd century, and people live in polis like birds among the threes. The trunks of those trees are the towers, and their convoluted branches are the gangway nets that connect the towers.
Over the past century, inhabitants of polis got used to living in the air. They got used to not touching the real ground or seeing things from above. They rarely are afraid of heights. They walk down the gangways looking up at the towering buildings and down at the dark abysses of lower parts of their polis.
Anti-g bike concept
They got used there is no such thing as the streets. Pneumobils replaced old cars and are flying along the air pathways. When you move "on the ground," you walk on air pavements supported by anti-g technology.
What does it mean? What could be exotic to us that is not for them and the other way around?
Take Twisted & Perverted game. It looks very common to us: streets, tenements, street lamps. Get it now? It is very exotic to people of gamedecverse: in this game, they can walk on the street! The street! They see the bases of the buildings; they can see how they stand on the ground! They cannot see the abyss under their feet because all that is lower is the concrete of the pavement or the street's asphalt; there is nothing more! Take Harvest Time game, and again – a ground under the feet, but this time a speck of real dirt, a natural soil—what a treat. What's more – they can grow the plants, and the plants are not dangerous!
On the other hand – take the Knight's Code game. Yes, we didn't get to see much of it yet, but maybe it is the right time.
Knight's Code - floating islands
Islands floating in the air, warriors that can fly. Exotic? To us – yes, but to the gamedecverse folks – it looks like an everyday view. Normal. You can look up and down.
What most of the dwellers of polis do not see is a lot of space when looking horizontally. There is a far scape looking up or down, but not to the left or right because there are so many towers around. The only happy people seeing far horizontally live in the polis's high parts – so-called High Cities, or those who live on the outskirts. So, the Knight's Code is exotic to them in this aspect.
On the left, there is a flying servobot with drinks, and behind the window, an anti-g drone displaying commercials.
In gamedecverse, people live like birds. Their vehicles fly; they walk on air pavements over thousands of meter high precipices, not noticing the danger. It is just their everyday landscape. Towers. Pavements. And heights.
They are not swifts. But they know how those birds feel.
***
We would like to seize the opportunity to ask you for votes in the IndieDB Indie of the Year competition:
Click to vote!
Vote for Gamedec!
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Stay safe!
#TeamGamedec
Gamedec 2020 in a nutshell - let's relive the most bizarre year of this century
Hello there!
The year is coming to an end. As we well know, 2020 is perhaps the strangest year in years for both humanity and the gaming industry itself. Therefore, we decided to prepare a quick summary of what this period looked like for Gamedec and provide you with a hefty amount of information about what we’ve managed to achieve.
JANUARY
In January, we’ve published an extended version of the Dev-Diary, in which Marcin Przybyłek (AKA Author of the Gamedecverse) told us a bit more about what it looks like to live in Low City:
We’ve also published some of our concept arts: https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/767514250389731
FEBRUARY
February was marked by solid preparations for the Kickstarter Campaign (which you did not know then because #WeKeptItASecret). That did not stop us from giving you more doses of Gamedec - Dev Diary on Harvest Time is the best example.
Members of our Team appeared (as announced) at PAX EAST 2020, where they showed a playable demo of Gamedec to both the community and the media. https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/803142113493611
During this event, we were asking people about their RPG experience and preferences. The results can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/778775469263609
MARCH & APRIL
March also began a period of our COVID-related remote work. Most of our Team moved to their homes to avoid exposing themselves, their families, and the rest of the Team to the potential threat of the virus in the name of #StayHome. When you’re reading this, we’re still working home. Some say we’ve collected a pretty badass pajamas collection. At least the bottom part. Hopefully, 2021 will be more favorable, because we miss the day-to-day contact and kitchen small-talks.
For us, March was a significant step towards running the game as a community-driven product, as we showed you the first draft of our Campaign on Kickstarter, collecting feedback and making the necessary touches. In the meantime, you also unlocked one of the tiers of the Steam Wishlist Challenge: the first chapter of the Gamedec Book: The Edge of Reality in English as a community, which you can read at the link below:
bit.ly/Gamedec_1stChapter
You also managed to unblock one of the songs with our # WishlistChallange - we posted it on our youtube channel - what do you think? Let us know in the comments: https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/791933534614469
The day before the start of the Gamedec Kickstarter Campaign, IGN published a material in which our Head of Production - Magdalena - went through and told a little more about the matter in the virtualium "Twisted and Perverted":
KICKSTARTER
And, of course, the remarkable milestone of the year. Our Kickstarter Campaign: http://bit.ly/GamedecKickstarter Over 340% of the amount funded, a lot of additional content unblocked, and above all - the community that we managed to build both here and on our Discord - this moment is one of the most critical points in our summary. We really cannot express how much we are happy with this success. Thank you!
What we confirmed during this campaign:
Over a month of hard, intense work of our Team, a lot of interviews, talks, videos, articles in which we wanted to bring you closer to our vision. And the sleepless nights of our PR / MKT department is a success for which we have been working for a very long time. During the Campaign, the video mentioned above was also released - about Gamedecverse: https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/840426436431845
- GOG.COM release
- Seven – The Days Long Gone virtualium
- Cthulhu-based virtualium
- Partial voice-overs
- Additional languages at the launch
More details can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...berpunk-rpg-set-in-xxii-century/posts/2822061
MAY
May started the event period, which, due to COVID-19, moved to the network. We took part in a lot of different events, including #IndieCelebration created by Digital Dragons, where we were one of 50 games that qualified for the main event: https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/852201625254326
We also appeared in #TheEscapistIndieShowcase https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/866495570491598
Another Dev-Diary also appeared in June our Team wanted to tell more about the complexity of the branching system. Please check out the video below to see how your choices can impact the game's course on one of the examples - the case involving Ramona and her grandpa.
Marcin also told us a bit more about Cage Cities in the next Dev-Diary:
Gamedec was also present on MonsterVine's Hot Games Summer Showcase! https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/photos/a.654752608332563/887601825047639/
JUNE
Because we are trying to show you how complicated and full the world of Gamedecverse is, we asked Marcin once again to explain to us what Gamedec needs to be able to do his job:
JULY, AUGUST & SEPTEMBER
This is an extremely important milestone. It was the moment of truth and a big test of our game. Backers from Kickstarter and the media got the Backer Build prepared to test the game and gather feedback, had the opportunity to share their impressions with us, prepare a lot of content (whether in the form of streams or video on youtube), and answer the questions we asked about how to play them in the survey which we took, analyzed and shared with the team to improve the game even more. Here’s the full report: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjqtyACv3eKUuEb79O2_-fqW1QsF?e=JXlmqI
We also made the Gamedec demo available several times for everyone so that they could see "what it is with" and see for themselves whether it is worth giving our product a chance. Our Community Manager - Mateusz, along with Krzysiek - our PR guest, also played a live backer build during the Stream hosted by TVGRY:
We also took part in Gamescom and the Indie Arena Booth. A lot happened - We announced the work on the Switch version of Gamedec. We showed some information about Knight's Code - another of the many virtual worlds available in the game. We also showed up at the event organized by Sonkwo, PAXWest, Digital Dragons (again!) And the Tokyo Game Show.
That’s not the end! We’ve been also present at the Sonkwo Online 2020. We were taking part in many great events to further promote our game. There were many activities, such as dev-streams, interviews, and more.
OCTOBER, NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
October brought essential news - we decided to postpone our game to 2021. Below, you can read the message that appeared on our social media channels:
https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame/posts/970035290137625
In November, we took part in the next edition of The Escapist Games Showcase: Fall Edition, DEVGAMM 2020, and we have prepared another Dev-Diary for you:
December brought to you another cool thing we were working on lately – an RPG character sheet for you and your friends. This sheet allows you to customize your very own gamedec for the sake of a Pen & Paper RPG session. We really advise to use it with some popular sci-fi RPG systems, to keep the experience fresh and exciting!
Here is the link: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=...AD3A!7293&parId=94E2DDAF00C8AD3A!7292&o=OneUp
As a bonus, we advise you to watch the subbed interview with Łukasz Hacura, about the Anshar Studios and how it all started:
Awards!
During the events, we've won many awards, such as Best Indie Game 2020 1st place at Digital Dragons, Unreal Engine Dev Contest 2020, Best Indie Game award at DevGamm, 1st place at Indie Awards 2020 at Devcom, – below, you can find all of the awards/nominations we've got so far with Gamedec!
Last, but not least: we've been selected as one of the TOP 3 best upcoming games of the IndieDB Best of the YearHuge honor!
Are you interested in what is coming next?
Little spoiler – 2021 will be a wild ride for you and us both Be sure to get loads of tea or coffee!
This the place where we share our social media accounts
https://www.facebook.com/gamedecthegame
https://twitter.com/GamedecTheGame
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClCsQVvDkHqGz5YEIkxw1Bg
And our list of Kickstarter updates:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...etric-cyberpunk-rpg-set-in-xxii-century/posts
About Gamedecverse #3: The pain and senses in Gamedecverse virtualia
Welcome to the third episode of our gamedecverse-related articles. This time, we’re looking closer to the aspect of emulating senses and pain in the virtualia. How does the system deal with such a complex physical factor? Is it possible to inflict real-life pain while gaming? Is it legal? Listen what Marcin Przybyłek has to say about this fascinating topic.
There is a problem when you create a vision of virtualia, which are supposed to be so real, the player cannot see or feel the difference between them and reality (reality is known in Gamedecverse as "realium"). When I was writing about the games of the future, I asked myself several questions. I will not write down all of them, just a few, the most important as far as this text is concerned:
As you can see, even though I said, there are not all the questions I asked myself when thinking of the games of the future, there are quite a few. My answer was (to all these questions): "It depends on the game." I decided that most gamers playing "typical" games wouldn't like to tire too much, nor feel the pain, nor feel the real weight of the guns and stuff, nor feel the physiological needs. The last ones would require additional sophisticated programming because the body of a person in virtualia in Gamedecverse doesn't urinate, open bowels or eat. So there would have to be an outstanding program differentiating certain reflexes of the real body.
- Would I like, as a gamer, to feel the pain in the games of the future?
- How would I like to feel the death of my avatar?
- Will there be future games that would allow the pain?
- If so, to what extend? Will they allow the pain to be as strong as the real one – for example, in a fantasy game, would I like to feel the torture of an axe cutting off my hand or a sword piercing through my stomach?
- Will some games specifically concentrate on pain?
- Would it be dangerous for the players to deal with strong digital pain?
- Would I like to feel the actual weight of the stuff my avatar would carry?
- Would I like to feel the tiredness of the digital body/muscles?
- Would I like my body to get dirty and smelly?
- Would I like my body to feel the hunger and urge to open the bowels / urinate?
In Gamedecverse, if you play a simple shooting clan MMO game, for instance, Crying Guns, you don't feel pain nor weight nor tiredness, nor hunger. You are there for the fun of shooting and fighting, not for a sim-like adventure. On the other hand, if you enter the Brahma world, everything is like realium. I mean, everything. Brahma was created to emulate realium, and its target is people forced to live in the net (zoenets), who don't want to play games but live everyday lives. It is also for children zoenets, whose parents wish to their younglings to see how they grow, how their bodies change, and so on. So "normal games" like Crying Guns and Brahma are the opposite sides of a specific continuum. Is there something in between? Yes!
Take a quick look at some of the worlds we're talking about in this article [click to enlarge]. These concepts come from the Gamedec: Boarding Game, released in 2013.
Some games allow pain if you let it. Like Twisted & Perverted. Generally, you don't feel any discomfort in this game, even during a fight. When you die, it is a slightly nauseous sensation, but that's it. You don't feel even a pinprick when someone stabs you or shoots at you. But if you agree with another player for a PvP mode, you will feel the pain. Not some excruciating torture, but big enough to… cherish it.
There is also a Goodabads game. It is an esports arena where devils fight angels flying in the skies. When a gamer gets a hit, he/she feels the pain. And it stays. When he/she gets hit again, the pain is added to the previous one. As above the head of a player, the audience can see that a Hammerfield ribbon unfolds, showing how much he/she suffers (it's a made up scale, don't look for it in the net). The top of the scale is 20, and, according to my books, there is only one player who can withstand this torture for several seconds. Goodabads is a trendy game because the audience knows that the pro-players are real heroes who learn to control neuro-induced pain and are good at it.
Now, there is a problem with the pain. On the one hand, it is just a neurological sensation informing you that there is something wrong with your body. So if only your brain can feel it, and your body is perfectly healthy, as it is the situation with the games of the future, nothing bad should happen. Well, theoretically, yes, but practically – not so very much.
When the brain feels the pain while playing a game, it doesn't understand that there is nothing wrong with the body. It starts the cascade of stress, and certain hormones are being released, the blood pressure rises, as does the pulse. "But that's also the case when a player is just excited," someone could say. Well, almost. The hormones of "bad" stress are slightly different from the ones of the "good" one. To sum things up, when you decide to play a game with the pain, you have to accept the possible health problem consequences so that the producers wouldn't have legal problems should something terrible happen to you. In other words, It will be all on you, and you've pressed "OK" - didn't you?
There are some illegal games, and they cross all the boundaries. The most (in)famous one is the Happy Hunting Grounds. It is a game of a hunt. Players who enter it dwell in the misty swamps and look for fantastic beasts, which… look for them too. In this game, all the sensory gates are open. If an animal puts a claw into your belly, you will feel it; if a predator opens your veins and tears your muscles, you will feel the blood loss and the pain of macerated tissues. You will feel it all, inside and outside. It is not like in the Brahma world.
When facing a serious accident that can mutilate your body, the program will protect you from such feelings. Nobody wants you to suffer the pain of dying. Happy Hunting Grounds doesn't protect you from the pain. What happens when you play this game and get injured in your stomach so much, your intestines go out, and you bleed to death? First, you feel the actual pain of such an event. Then your brain gets the message that you are bleeding out. What is a physiological reaction to such a thing? The organism tries to maintain blood pressure by contracting blood vessels. You see the problem here? The actual blood pressure is OK; he/she is not bleeding.
The brain gets contradictory messages so that it can react in two ways. One: go with the first protocol and contract arteries and veins, causing a rapid increase in blood pressure. Two: respond paradoxically, tuning to the game image of bleeding – widening the blood vessels in the stomach, causing most blood to go there (it is called an anaphylactic shock). The first scenario is dangerous – it could lead to a heart attack or brain stroke. The second one is even more dangerous. The lack of blood in the heart, brain, kidneys, and other essential organs may lead to death, as is the case in anaphylactic shock.
Happy Hunting Grounds is dangerous – playing the game and being injured can lead to real death. Of course, when injured, you can log out of it using a standard log out gesture with your hand. But what if your hands get ripped off? HHG doesn't forgive. Playing that game is forbidden, and if you get caught, you will face legal problems. So be warned.
And so, more or less, we have covered the topic of feeling and pain in games. As you can see, it is a continuum – from games where you don't suffer or face discomforts to games that are so real that they can be fatal.
Which one will you choose? It's your decision, my friend. You are the sum of your choices.
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
Stay safe!
#TeamGamedec
It's been a while since we shared some work-in-progress insights about the game. We're sure that many of you are pretty curious about how the game development process is going and what are our current struggles on the road to the release. Especially after we shared information about delaying the game (back in October) or asked our Kickstarter backers to prepare their input that will appear in the game.
By the way, we know you hate our e-mail reminders... but... there are still some of you, folks, that didn't send f.e. message for Gamedec voicemail. If you need help creating the script for your message or struggling with all the other rewards, give us a call, we will try to help you out. It's also worth mentioning that we are saving the right to reject all the assets delivered after the deadline since it can collide with our pipelines. However, we hope that we will not have to undertake such dilemmas.
Let's get back to today's topic, shall we?
Among all the minor tweaks and features that our designers, programmers, and artists created or implemented, we mostly focused on making the mechanics like the Character Creation tool and a Save System. Just as a reminder, you can watch our dev-diary HERE, where Marcin, Mateusz, and Krzysztof are breaking the Character Creation process down into pieces.
Your feedback from the Backer's Build closed preview also gave us crucial input in which direction we want to go with the UI. And I don't mean only horizontal or vertical alignment. We're also working on making the text more readable. Specific worlds will have some custom layouts to highlight the idea of being inside the virtual world. And perhaps this is a perfect moment to hint that something is coming? Here's the hint: Check out our Kickstarter page to look after clues
What about the visual layer? The Art team is now working on a new location, but it would be slightly unfair to you, the players, to spoil everything before the release. Instead, we want to show something else. Starting with the concepts, you already know Twisted & Perverted Virtualium. The theater concept in the 2D perspective resembles buildings from the golden age of cinema. You had the opportunity to see what was happening inside and join an extraordinary showing. The Slums can be described as a deteriorated infrastructure of Warsaw City. The name indicates that it is located in the more inferior part of the city, i.e., the lower parts - Low City.
But wait a minute. Who is this lovely Mech? It's Sgt. Brut. And she’s not lovely. A huge battle robot in the Out-Rangers painting with a lot of experience on the battlefield, as evidenced by her battered armor.
Last but not least, the Animation Team progresses with their work, with a GIF below serving as an a example. Sleeping in a coffin inside Harvest Time... sounds cozy?
We also made the first attempts to run the game on a Nintendo Switch. And guess what... it’s alive! After a few initial runs we must say that the frame rate looks promising. Our QA is currently highlighting all the bugs and tweaks required to optimize the Switch version of the game.
We got to the end of today's report. Let us know what would like to find out next time. We’ll be back in February with more concepts and WIP assets
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If you'd like to talk with our team members, want to ask a question to the Author of the Gamedecverse (Marcin S. Przybyłek), or chat with enthusiasts like you - join our Discord channel.
The origins of Gamedec the game - PyrkONline 2020 [Part 2]
A month ago, we published the first part of Pyrkon's (Most anticipated fantasy event in Poland) lecture video. Our creative director Marcin Rybiński and writer Marcin Sergiusz Przybyłek talked about the beginning of the game's production and spoke about how to transfer ideas from books to a virtual environment.
Now we will continue this lecture. This time, you will learn more about the individual steps in designing a case and what the process of creating characters you will see in the game looks like, from the description, through references, to creating an avatar of this character.
The video is once again in Polish, but for your convenience, we have added English subtitles.
Video edited for Allegro PyrkONline. You can find more at www.pyrkonline.allegro.pl
About Gamedecverse #4: Everyday life in the 22nd century
What does the life of a statistical citizen of the Gamedecverse look like? It depends on the cultural circle, the specific job, and continent, but let's focus here mainly on Warsaw City.
Social Media
In the GamedecVerse, social media exists, and it's so obvious that it's overall ubiquitous. To NOT BE on social media, you have to block out a lot of things, because if you don't, and you agree to all the questions while registering your walktel / omnic / glasses / lenses, here's what will happen to the life of an average citizen [let’s call him Victor]:
Intimate life scenes are not posted in Citizen Hub. You need to enable this option (unlike all the others) and enjoy watching your own and others' exploits in the Erotic Hub, where only those who have enabled the appropriate option in their devices have access.
- His walktel / omnic will create a continuous network logging. That is, it will record everything he sees and hears. The device records until it runs out of storage media. When it runs out, it places everything in a theoretically private secure cloud and then, using the device's internal memory, overwrites the previous logging. As a rule, one string lasts about a week.
- The artificial intelligence of the walkthrough / omnic will post to the Citizen Hub (more commonly known as CitHub, or Hub) those moments of his life that contain a lot of emotion, which the device will detect by analyzing the owner's tone of voice and the people around him.
CitHub looks like a massive space in which you swim like a diver in the depths. Closest to you are the logins of your close friends, further away your distant friends, the bottom represents the past, and the ocean's surface is the present. Each new entry pushes the one that has been "floating" on the surface so far down. Each Hub user can organize the space in their own way and divide it into sectors, but this is the most popular Hub arrangement. Slightly less popular is the sphere in the middle of which the user is located. His friends determine the area of the sphere. This arrangement only works for people who have a small number of friends (determined by the Hub). Of course, your hub space can look as you wish: choose the animations that fill it and enjoy your Hub! Be in the ocean, in space, among the clouds. The sky is the limit.
If someone wants to capture a particular part of their life in CitHub, they activate the "Hub Me" command. Then he or she uploads a holm or a pholo to the Hub, usually accompanied by a comment.
If you want to capture a scene in true 3D, you use the "Scene" command, and then everyone can see the object you filmed from every angle you used.
Privacy issues
Social media like CitHub or others like it (CitHub is the most popular, though) destroy privacy, so there is a large percentage of people who don't use the Hub's benefits. It's over 50% of the population, with over 80% of users among young people using the Hub and dropping below 20% among adults. In many professions, network logging is inconvenient/compromising, and in others, it compromises discretion.
High-level managers, gamekeepers, detectives, police officers, military, Out-Rangers, priests, lawyers, IT workers, and corporate employees have most network logging features turned off, not to say that they have logging turned off at all. But many of them, for fear of leaks, turn off private logging as well.
A statistical day
Have you ever wondered what a typical day of Warsaw City dweller might look like? Surprise - many rituals from the 21st century have survived. After all, morning coffee drinking will never become a thing of the past. However, technology is changing people's habits, so let's take a look at Victor, following his footsteps during the day.
Morning
Victor is woken up either by:
If he has a robot, albeit a Duster (a spider-shaped multitasking droid), this one can bring him breakfast in bed, though most likely Victor will get up and make his own breakfast... Sort of. First, he'll walk over to the refrigerator, which will display to him information about its contents and possibly suggest shopping at one of the well-known grocery chains. The kitchenmat (everyone has a kitchenmat) connected to the fridge can suggest a nutritious breakfast, such as a tortilla or another omelet. All Victor has to do is take the products (which the kitchenmat displays above his body) out of the fridge and drop them into the appropriate slots. The kitchenmat will tell you when the dish is done.
- by the news being turned on the screen of which unfolds in front of his bed
- by a traditional beep
- by music
- by an intensified massage generated by his bed.
In the meantime, Victor can make himself a cup of coffee or tea using the almost traditional coffee machine. Importantly, his kitchen can show him various views while he waits for his dish, and the cup he's drinking his coffee in will show the same views. However, if Victor wants to save money on dishes, he can agree to have a company advertise for him on his mugs, kitchen walls, and plates. Then, the company will send him dishes, and he will be able, if he is a player, to admire on the mug the breasts of a dashing Enpec dressed in medieval armor or the sleek vehicle of a space pirate. A Varsovian can also have universal dishes that can accept all other kinds of advertising from the web. Then it will receive discounts on all sorts of products, including food, for doing so.
Kitchensmat spits out a tortilla; Victor puts it on a plate and walks to the living room, through which rounded windows (windows in Warsaw City are usually round). He watches his beloved city from a level indicating his status. The higher the apartment, the higher is their social status. Having eaten his fill, Victor gazes longingly at the servobot, which offers a drink, but it's not appropriate before work.
Work-life
Ok, but how does a typical workday look like? Is it different from what we do now? Do they commute or work remotely? Let's dive right into it.
Travel
From the moment he leaves home, Victor is at work. The unions of Free Europe achieved that much. Before that, companies were saying that as long as he is not at work per se, he is unproductive. Nowadays, Victor is traveling to the office, and he's already working because it's no longer his private life. And that's why commuting and return time is deducted from the eight-hour workday. Justice was done. You work Monday through Friday, of course, with Wednesday's hours reduced to six.
Among other reasons, many people in the GamedecVerse work without moving from home. This makes both the employer (the employee does not spend half a minute traveling) and the employee happy. However, this type of work does not work everywhere. You can be a virtual receptionist (if the office provides such a position and has an automated reception desk). You can work from home as a freelancer (engineer, graphic designer, writer), but homeworking is more difficult with a team. It is worth mentioning that homeworking sometimes takes place in a virtual environment (the employee lies on a bed). Such people work in a network. However, despite appearances, this is not light work because, over time, it puts a strain on the body, so better companies pay such employees compensation for harmful working conditions.
Let's go back to Victor. He can go to the parking lot of his tower and fly to work by cab (more expensive option), he can get there by his own pneumobile, he can go down, take an elevator to the PTT (public transport tube), he can finally get there by aurocar (let's recall that PTT and aurocars run on the lower levels of the city, and on the lowest level PTT doesn't go any further, only aurocars run there).
During the trip, Victor can activate a section of the vehicle's window and view a section of news services and advertisements there, or he can tint his glasses and view the news in them. Not everyone has to admire their city, especially if it's the hundredth time they've traveled the same stretch of air route.
At work
Of course, before Victor gets to work, he has to go through an airlock. Practically always at the tower entrance and exit, people pass through the locks, which inform about the temperature outside and inside, pressure, and humidity. They also make sure that we have not miraculously brought representatives of fauna or flora undesirable in a given environment (the company has its own environment, right?). Work in the office has changed little and a lot if we compare it to the early XXI century standards.
People still work in teams, which many employees joke about, because any employee could be a team leader leading a team of Artificial Intelligences, and they generally are. Still, organics create "superteams," Their primary purpose is to integrate people into the company and its community. Company headquarters are full of rooms making work more pleasant, which does not mean that there is little work. The kind of views we see today at Google's headquarters in Zurich are common in GamedecVerse. Why? Companies are trying to replace the lives of their employees. Employees eat (for free) at companies, pursue virtual or real dreams at companies, and fall in love at work. There are so-called "Chat Rooms" and "F-Rooms" (Flirt Rooms), where you can officially go on a date or even experience sweet erotic moments. Romance in companies is not only allowed, but employees are even encouraged to do it. Why? So that they will gladly return to the company and enjoy staying there.
Suppose someone is reluctant to flirt with a colleague. In that case, company servers offer W-Pals, or Work Pals, bots residing on the company's network (and only on that network) that are created according to an employee's sexual needs. Many people with an orthodox view of life view these practices with distaste, but there are quite a few more modern-looking people for whom both polyamory and AI relationships are a kind of the norm.
Manual labor has been largely eliminated. People tend to work at a design, supervisory level, working more conceptually than repetitively. This results in increased stress on the nervous system, frequent burnout syndromes, neurosis, depression, and nervous breakdowns. Employees often take nano-drugs to stimulate and regenerate the nervous system, and in this respect, they differ little from professional players.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that competition in the late 22nd century in every field is pushed to the limits of absurdity, hence the need for each company to have larger or smaller armed forces, agent cells, investigators, and investigations.
While in the company, Victor may work in front of a computer screen (rare), in a vipress (the most common form of work), or a VR if team/parallel work is needed. Then (in VR), Victor may find himself in a factory tens or hundreds of kilometers away, where he supervises the work of industrial robots, remotely controls an industrial robot, or manages its work. This type of work is very popular, although less paid. They give the feeling of doing something meaningful.
After work
After work, Victor needs to chill out. After taking a Ch-pill to calm his swollen neurons and stimulate glial cells to cleanse the brain of excess metabolite. He can go to a walking platform or any of Warsaw City's numerous observation terraces, where he can watch the setting sun, clouds, and other people until late hours. De facto, these are the most frequent, most popular meeting places. Suppose he has a lot of money. In that case, he can fly in a special aurocar to the very bottom of the polygon to the Old Town, where, surrounded by a high cylinder of illusion, the Old Town of Warsaw stands almost identical to the original one. The most expensive restaurants, the most snobbish galleries, and the best possible protection from the terrifying reality of the undercity surrounding the place.
Victor can also have a drink, take a plex, go dancing, visit one of the many shopping malls where he can buy his clothes, equipment, or toys, or go to a collective cinema (Colmov) where passively participating in the holovidrome. In there, Together with the other viewers, he can decide how the action is to unfold in the film's key moments. The whole game is about pulling the audience to his side during negotiations that last a maximum of one minute.
Then Victor goes home, asks the servobot for a drink, turns on the news or the holm, looks at what he recorded that day with a walkthrough or an omnic, takes an anti-gravity shower, goes to bed and, lulled by a massage, transports his spirit to the land of Morpheus.
How did you like the daily routine of Victor? He surely has a lot to do, so no wonder he wants to chill after work in one of the many bars or jump into the virtualias. Can you imagine yourself living in the 22nd century Warsaw City?
It’s time to share with you what was happening in the development of Gamedec for the past month. We have some pretty exciting news to share, so bear with us and dive deep into our changelog.
By the way, if we have some Kickstarter Backers out there, we kindly remind you to head to our Discord server and tell us why did you decide to back our project – we would love to know the reasons on a video for an epic montage purpose We would also ask for your attention regarding our Gamedecverse cocktail contest – the best submissions will be included in our game!
Click here to read more about it![www.facebook.com]
Without further ado, let’s check what we were cooking in the meantime!
Let’s start with a completely new Loading Screen system. We decided it needs tweaking and now it’s more immersive. What’s new? There is information regarding the place where you’re heading with a clear distinction if it’s a sensory world or just plain Realium. We also added more graphics and some cool animations to make it more pleasant.
Profession and Deduction trees are very important in terms of gameplay but also pure visual style. We sat down with Designers and UI Artists, answered some fundamental questions which resulted in some major changes to these two mechanics. The core is the same, but the visuals and the UI will be easier to comprehend and use.
How to pave your way? Well... this is an option
One of the major issues feedbacked after releasing the Backer’s Build was about the dialogues and the overall writing quality. We’re making everything we can to make sure the final release build will be as polished as possible and you will see the improvement in the updated version of our demo which is coming soon to all of our Kickstarter Backers.
Ah yes, the sounds. The lack of music and SFX in the first demo was widely discussed and we know this is the field we really need to show you what we have in mind. We expanded our talented team of sound designers. They work very hard to deliver a memorable experience. Modified SFX, mood music, and some ambient sounds will create a perfect gaming harmony. Trust us, you REALLY want to hear what we’re preparing for the final release.
The most noticeable update will be the improved lighting system for the upcoming Backer’s Build update. We might spoil a little bit for you right now. Check out the screenshots below from Yeti’s Coming and Low City streets.
We’re really hitting the point in which every team member has a lot to do and there is no time to waste. This is why we’re all hands on deck to deliver even better character animations and visual effects. This is the news we were very excited to share. Thanks to unlocking more character skins in our Kickstarter campaign, you will have the opportunity to pick your favourite avatar at the start of the game. Check our previous video about character creation to see what we have in mind. Right now, we can spoil a little bit about a female model, that will be available in the upcoming Backer’s Build update.
And last, but not least – we are preparing a new case in an unrevealed location, which requires a lot of modeling and SFX creation. This is it, no more details yet, but we cannot wait to show you a glimpse of what our team has prepared. As always, it would be something completely different from what you’ve seen yet. Happily, Gamedecverse is flexible in terms of available games and settings.
This concludes today's report. Let us know what would like to find out next time. We’ll be back in a month with more concepts and WIP assets
